Diverging Male Wage Inequality in the United States and Canada, 1981-1988: Do Institutions Explain the Difference?
研究1981-1988年间美国和加拿大男性工资不平等性变化差异，发现工会化率和最低工资变化解释了两国不平等性增长差异的三分之二。
The U.S. and Canadian economies have much in common,including similar collective bargaining structures. During the period 1981-88, however, although both countries witnessed a decline in the percentage of workers belonging to unions and an increase in hourly wage inequality, those changes were much more pronounced in the United States than in Canada. Using micro data on men in the United States and Canada in 1981 and 1988, the authors study the effect of labor market institutions on changes in wage inequality by computing simple counterfactuals such as the distribution of wages that would prevail if all workers were paid according to the observed nonunion wage schedule. Their results suggest that changes in unionization rates and minimum wages account for two-thirds of the differential growth in wage inequality between the two countries.